The unconditional love of God

I once heard Rebecca St. James state this liberating truth in a concert: “There is nothing you can do to make God love you more, and there’s nothing you can do to make God love you less.” This is a profound statement. Too often we are tempted to think, “If I just perform well enough for God. If I tithe to the church, or read the Bible; if I do all the things that a good Christian is supposed to do, then God will love me more.” We also reason, “If I’m selfish, if I’m proud and arrogant, if I snap in anger at my spouse, if I indulge in sin, then God will love me less.” This isn’t true.

I’m making a “T” signal with my hands to signal a time-out, as football teams do (by the way, good first game, Broncos! Keep it up.). We need to take a time-out. I have to give a very important clarification. Based on what I’ve said thus far, some may presume that I’m suggesting that it is acceptable to sin until your heart’s content, because God’s love will remain constant and unchanging anyway. Please understand: I am not at all advocating this. It is wrong to assume that we should go out and do any self-centered thing we want to do just because God’s love will always endure.

The reality is if we choose to live an unrighteous and unholy life, God will actually begin to discipline and correct us, as the Bible tells us in Hebrews 12. He does this out of love for His children because the precepts He has laid out in His Word are actually for our protection, not our deprivation. I hope it’s crystal clear that I’m not suggesting that we can just go out and live any way we want. Having said all this, the Bible says in 1 John chapter 1 that there’s not a person on this planet that lives a perfect and sinless life. We all make mistakes. In those episodes of making sinful mistakes, God’s love for us doesn’t diminish.

Furthermore, as we flip the coin over, it is great to go to church; it's great to give God your tithes and offerings. It's great to pray and read the Bible, etc. However, it's easy for this to become a legalistic ritual. We can begin to think that if we do these things we somehow magically earn Heavenly merit badges before God. God doesn't say, "Make sure you do this and this. Make sure you check off all the boxes, and I'll love you more than I did before." No, nothing could be further from the truth. God doesn't expect us to perform for Him in a legalistic way. We do these things because we want to, not because we have to. Additionally, a Christian is in right standing with God because of Jesus and Jesus alone, not because of any works.

Here’s the point that I want you to hold onto: (and I’m saying the same thing to myself too) God’s love is not conditional or based on what we do; God’s love for you and me is unconditional.

Kevin